A Trip to the Marion Branch

[Gage O'Dell]

My college Spring Break has come and gone and in the few days I didn't have to work, I made the most of it and made a spontaneous trip to the Marion Branch in Indiana. I didn't know I wanted to come up here, but after seeing a couple Facebook friends pictures from around the area, it pushed me to make the 5 hour trip from Lexington to Claypool in the middle of the night so I could make the most of the daylight I had to use. It started off well when my first train of the day was the Lackawanna heritage unit. After two funky, and to me, not very good shots of it. I gave up and went back to Leesburg to wait for some trains. I lucked into the south end signal ready for a northbound, and a southbound rolling down the hill.

A text from a friend a few minutes later let me know that there was another southbound, just on the Marion Branch, with the Nickel Plate unit leading. I knew that M77 went down the old NKP Chicago Line, and I probably only have one chance at something like that. So I ended up chasing him to Whitley. The next day, I started in Milford and shot CSX until a southbound came to me. I met up with a friend there and we chased 19K about 40 miles from Milford to Speicherville just shooting the old Pennsy signals. It was a quick, spur of the moment trip that was quite successful. I will be back sometime in June, and will hopefully have the same amount of luck!

Below are a few photos from the Marion Branch adventure, if you'd like to see the rest, you can check out the Flickr album here>>https://flic.kr/s/aHskwJitBx

Wednesday 3/16/16

NS M77 rolls up the hill and splits the signals at the north end of Leesburg siding with the Nickel Plate heritage unit leading


NS M77 rolls down Hickory Street in downtown Warsaw as the NKP heritage unit does some old fashioned street running


Non Marion Branch, but something worth sharing.. After taking the connection in Claypool, NS M77 traverses the former NKP Chicago mainline as it passes some old code line poles near South Whitley.


NS 92K, with NS 7142 as the leader, backs into the siding at Milford Junction to tie up for the evening


Thursday 3/17/16

NS 144 slowly crosses the CSX/NS Diamond at Milford Junction as it finishes its journey for Elkhart


NS 19K rolls out of the siding at the south end of Leesburg siding


NS 19K passes by the former Pennsy position light signals at the south end of Speicher siding

[Matt L]

Nice job!